E42: Amazon Alexa's Dr. Raf Fatani on why technology must cater for Arabic speakers
Dr. Raf Fatani is spearheading Amazon Alexa in Arabic globally. While most firms tend to revert to the Modern Standard Arabic (or Fusha - فصحة) when they speak to over half a billion Arabic speakers globally, Raf decided that Alexa cannot go down the same path and that an investment has to be made once and for all to bring colloquial Arabic to technology. We discuss the challenges of building Alexa in Arabic from the ground up, what is the utility of a virtual assistant today and what does the future look like. Here is a link to Prof. Elias Muhanna's article that Raf and I discussed at the beginning of the podcast: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/translating-frozen-into-arabic For more information visit www.conversationswithloulou.com
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Show Notes
Dr. Raf Fatani is spearheading Amazon Alexa in Arabic globally. While most firms tend to revert to the Modern Standard Arabic (or Fusha - فصحة) when they speak to over half a billion Arabic speakers globally, Raf decided that Alexa cannot go down the same path and that an investment has to be made once and for all to bring colloquial Arabic to technology. We discuss the challenges of building Alexa in Arabic from the ground up, what is the utility of a virtual assistant today and what does the future look like.
Here is a link to Prof. Elias Muhanna's article that Raf and I discussed at the beginning of the podcast: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/translating-frozen-into-arabic
For more information visit www.conversationswithloulou.com
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